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William Buelow Gould--Convict Artist in Van Diemen's Land

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William Buelow Gould--Convict Artist in Van Diemen's Land PAP~:<:Rs AND PRoCE::8DJNGS OF THE ROYAL Sf.tf"IETY oF TASMANIA, VoLUME 9:3 WILLIAM BUELOW GOULD--CONVICT ARTIST IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND By !SABELLA MEAD* (With 1 Plate) When I came first to the Launceston Museum I brought William Buelow Gould to Van Diemen's found very many paintings by a convict named Land. He writes of him:- Gould. Very soon visitors were asking me questions about him and I proceeded to read what had been " This poor wretch is another example of the written. It seemed very little. In fact, it amounted baneful effects produced by gambling. He to the notes that had been put together by Mr. has been a pupil of Mulreadys-his true name Henry Allport for an exhibition of Tasmanian art is Holland-his friends residing in Stafford are held in Hobart in 1931. These notes were published chinaware manufacturers. in the " Mercury " newspaper and then put together He got into a gambling set in Liverpool, lost in pamphlet form. Every subsequent writer on his money and to redeem it and being fond Gould has used them. of play he got initiated and became a regular When people said, however," vVhen was he born? member of the set of sharpers. When did he die? Was he marri.ed? Did he leave In the course of his practices he came to any family? Did he paint only in oil?", I had to London and was at one time intimate with reply, "I do not know." I am still not certain when the notorious Thurthill, the murderer, and he was born, but I know when he died. all his gang. When people asked, "Where did Gould live?", He painted at times for Ackerman in the I said, vaguely, "Hobart . Then, one day, looking Strand and got transported for some petty through some records in the Museum, I found that theft which his vices and necessities drove William Buelow Gould was before R. C. Gunn,t him to commit . Magistrate, here in Launceston, for being drunk. In an attempt to verify this story which Gould So he wa:sn't only in Hobart. He was also in Laun­ tqld, a letter was written to the Royal Academy ceston and, I found later, at Macquarie Harbour, at of Arts who were unable to illuminate the story at Port Arthur, at Bridgewater, and at Jericho. all. William Mulready, RA., taught drawing Then-Vvas he married? Did l:w have a family? throughout his life, but as far as is known, no Yes. Did he paint only in oil? No, he used list of his pupils exists. Ackerman came to London watercolour too, much more effectively than he as a coach designer, opened a print shop, and did oiL published numerous illustrated books. So I got. together gradually some kind of picture J?r. C. Craig has in his possession an oil painting of this early artist. winch suggests very strongly the Ackerman influ­ Of Gould's early life very little is still known. ence. Actually his name was Holland, not Gould. Tradition says also that Gould worked at flower He was born in Liverpool. Who his parents were at Spodes. Spodes that it is likely is not known, for births were not at did have some of training Somerset House until 1837 and even were with them and an examination of native not obligatory; but an entry in Gore's Liverpool .flowers which Gould did in Tasmania reminds one Directory of 1805, which reads "Peter Holland, immediately of exquisite china. But Spades also Drawing Master", is suggestive. that their records were few between 1770 Was Peter Holland, drawing Gould's also, as they were not considered of historical value, father? He was probably educated a local they were destroyed. grammar school for he could read and write, an It was Josiah Spade who, in England, perfected accomplishment rare amongst convicts 150 years bone china about the year 1805. This china was ago. more translucent than anything which had been Further details are given in the diary of Robert produced previously and was very suitable for Francis Martin, 1st Officer in the ship which decoration. To Josiah Spode England owed the Museum, I..a.un('f~ston, Tasmania~ 1·ead this paper- to the Royal Soeiety 81 ILS.G 82 WILLIAM BlJELOW GOULD-·CO,'/Vl~'T ARTIST' IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND great reputation she obtained as being the only and arms stolen one coat •·. The sentence was country manufacturing this beautifully decorated " seven years beyond the seas ". type of porcelain. He had a previous conviction for stealing So here we have a man--educated, probably "colours", presumably painter's colours. The apprenticed to Spode;s, learning their exquisite charge for stealing the coat was felony and, unfor­ brushwork a,nd the use of colour. Then, learning tunately for Gould, this year, 1826, was the last from Mulre~tdy, who taught drawing and exhibited year when petty larcenJj was felony. at the R<)Yal Academy, then for Ackerman, 1:Jntil he was due to leave Gould was who settled in the Strand and art litho- detained in the hulks Dolphin York. Here he in England. So Gould should have stayed from November tili the following August-- Diemen's Land a rich inheritance-all nine months-when he was to Van Diemen's he had learnt from Josiah Spode, the finest of china Land in the Asia 3. This was second ship of manufacturers, and from Rudolf Ackerman, the this name to leave England for this countrv within finest printer and art producer of his time. a month. This Asia was square-sails on Why did Gould come to Van Diemen's Land? its three masts, and was of tons, built Calcutta about 1311. She left Portsmouth on the 17th The beginning of the trouble was probably when August, 182'1, with 200 male convicts in the charge he went to London, made the wrong friends, and of Captain Boscawen. The Asia came again in got in with the notorious 'l'hurthill. John Thurt" 1841 and 1847. There were, altogether, three ships hill was tried for murder in 1823 and when he was named Asia. arrested the authorities also arrested any of his associates they could find. At least three were Gould was probably pleased when the actual day tried and everyone in sight was examined. Perhaps of sailing came. We do not know what his actual Gould became frightened at this time and left feelings were as he saw England for the last time. London, going back to his friends in the pottery but a. general description of the departure has beeri counties, hoping they would help him to find given by the First Officer of the Asia 3, whose diary work; but perhaps, too, they were too frightened is still extant. He writes: Some cast a tearful to be associated with him after his life in London. eye and melancholy look", some "were too busy squabbling for rations that they did not seem to Unable to find work he found himself transported care ", and "others were lying in the sun tallcing to Van Diemen's Land, leaving behind him a wife in slang gibberi::;h of their many adventures". and two children in Burslem. The departure was witnessed by the Russian Let us look at the portrait of William Buelow Squadron lying at anchor in the English Channel. Gould which hangs in the Tasmanian Museum.* The Russian Squadron was awaiting orders from This portrait shows him as quite a well dressed the British Government to proceed to the Mediter­ man-about-town and was painted probably about ranean to help England help the Greeks against 1845 when Gould was 45 or 46 years of age. Since Turkey in the Greek War of Liberation. we have in the archives an official description of In ten days some of the convicts had become him about this time, let us read it in conjunction troublesome-sauciness being their chief misde­ with the portrait:- meanour. At the end of a fortnight the matter Head, large, long; forehead, low; eyes, grey; was more serious. A conspiracy was planned to complexion, sallow; hair, dark-brown; visage, take the ship, set the Captain and Officers adrift, narrow; eyebrows, dark-brown; chin, small; and to sail for some part of South America. nose, aquiline. Reminiscent of Bligh, twenty years before. The Let us turn back to the time of his arrival in Van plot justified the statement of the Portsmouth Diemen's Land twenty years earlier. These records paper which wrote of the Asia's departure-" 200 show that Gould's convict number was 521. He worse characters never left the country". was five feet five inches in height, age 26, a painter William Buelow Gould took no part in these by trade. His native place was Liverpool. intrigues. During the voyage out, C~ould was evi­ On the 7th November, 1826, after being in the dently quite busy. He was entered on the ship's 'Town Gaol .for three months, he had been charged papers as a portrait painter and the officers were at the Northampton Quarter Sessions "with .force having their likenesses taken by him. Officer Alsop was the first--sitting in full tog. But after four *In previous literature, espedally Early Art in Tasmania days Mr. Alsop was dissatisfied with the (Henry Allport, 19;:31) ; The Story o-f' Australian Art (William Moore. 1981) ; Origins of in Tasmania (Rm;amond A. V. result, especially when his hirn on McCuJJoeh, 1948) ; and A of Australian Art {HerbeTt E, the caricature.
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